A network processor may be coupled to one or more network devices, such as a computer, through the network processor's input ports. Each output port of the network processor is connected to a network of limited system bandwidth. Only a certain amount of data may be transmitted by that network at one time.
To ensure access to the network, consumers are willing to purchase access to a portion of the system bandwidth from the owner thereof. Therefore, the owner of the system bandwidth may divide the system bandwidth into portions and sell the portions to one or more consumers. Typically, a purchaser of a portion of the system bandwidth does not use all of their purchased portion of the system bandwidth all of the time. Consequently, in order to increase revenues, the owner of the system bandwidth will typically sell more system bandwidth than may be available at any one time (i.e., will oversubscribe). If a consumer wants to use his full purchased portion of system bandwidth, he may temporarily use excess bandwidth (e.g., bandwidth that has been purchased by another consumer but is not in use at that moment). However, when many consumers are attempting to use all or a large portion of their purchased bandwidth at the same time, the availability of bandwidth is unpredictable. Some consumers may be allowed to use their full purchased portion of system bandwidth, while other consumers may only be allowed to use a portion of their purchased bandwidth.
Therefore, an improved system of providing access to a limited system bandwidth is needed.